


touch

by baldoldman



Category: The Office (US)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 08:47:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7708597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baldoldman/pseuds/baldoldman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a brief history of physical affection in Erin Hannon's life</p>
            </blockquote>





	touch

Erin was always a stranger to touch. Whether it was the caress of a parent, a hug from a friend, or the kiss of a lover. Growing up orphaned meant that the gentle pats she received were few, far apart, and from foster parents she would eventually leave. Embraces with friends were more likely to happen after a fight over treats, and the kiss of a lover was non-existent.

This doesn't mean Erin doesn't like to be touched. In fact, after she left the foster care system and started her life away from it at the age of 18, she sort of became addicted to touch. Any brush of contact got her high wired. Before her job at Dunder Mifflin, before friends, she had many one night stands.

Although, she didn't know they were one night stands until she woke up alone.

Then, at Dunder mifflin, she has friends. Too many to count.

She's got Kelly, who is dressing Erin and doing her hair for her and giving her hugs for any occasion.

She's got Phyllis, who always has a motherly squeeze or stroke for Erin.

She's got Michael Scott, who will reenact any fight scene from any movie with her (which usually ends with either herself or Michael dying dramatically in the others arms).

She's got Ryan, and Dwight, and Jim, and Darryl, who are always there for help lifting boxes of pens or a steadying hand when she's decorating the office for holidays.

They all make her warm on the inside, every easy little touch makes her forget about her first eighteen years, full of stiffness and the rules of no physicality.

For a while, Erin has Gabe. Gabe, her first realization that it's not always a one night stand. After leaving his place before he woke up that one summer night, she felt alright. Gabe was as good a lover as any, but he was...you know...Gabe.

Then he comes to work and she gives him an awkward smile but he gives her a kiss and calls her his girlfriend.

So...she rolls with it.

Erin accepts all of Gabe's wet kisses and the feeling of his strangely cold hands. This is her first adult relationship. She assumes they all feel this forced and one sided.

When it ends with Gabe, she's relieved.

Then there's Andy.

Andy who is so sweet, who tries so hard for Erin and her happiness. At the beginning.

Erin loves him, and she loves how much he loves her. She's sure for a while that this is her end game. Andy + Erin = forever. His touch is clumsy and awkward. Not as experienced as Gabe, but more warm. Erin accepts his imperfections, his temper and occasional insensitivity. She loves him, and how can love be wrong?

While there's Andy there's also Nellie. Nellie who loves Erin and wants to adopt a child just like Erin. Nellie who made mistakes but is just hurting.

And then Andy is doing the hurting. Ruthless and unforgiving, Andy won't let Nellie adopt a kid, one just like Erin.

Erin can't believe it. She starts crying before she can hide it, and goes red as she catches a glimpse of Pete, the nice guy who she split fries with once after her audition for Clarke, seeing her cry.

She hides behind the curtain and tries to control herself and Nellie is there, comforting her, but Erin's heart is broken. Not just for Nellie, for herself. Erin never knew the man she loved could be so awful.

Before Andy even notices, Pete appears behind the curtain. He's got a package of tissues and a soft smile. Nellie takes the tissues and Erin takes the smile, uses it to calm her tears.

Erin sees Andy in a new light. Sees his selfishness. She doesn't want to cry again, so she ignores it.

She splits a blueberry pie with Pete. He uses the blueberries to black out some teeth and talks like s pirate, and Erin laughs so hard she falls over. He helps her back up, laughing too, and Erin likes how warm and strong his hand is.

So now there's Pete. He's everywhere, at reception, in the kitchen, beside her during conference meetings, and wandering through Erin's head all the time.

Andy, on the other hand, is nowhere to be found. He's gone on a boat or to an island, maybe to another planet. Erin doesn't hear from him. After the initial shock and worry, Erin doesn't want to hear from him.

Now, she can barely help herself! Pete is here and he's nice and he cares about her feelings and Erin wants to touch him all the time. Every time his arm rests against hers in conference meetings, or when their fingers brush between coffee mugs, Erin just wants to grab him. She wants to wrap her arms around his chest, comb her fingers through his hair, kiss him all over his face.

Yes. She wants to kiss Pete. But she's dating Andy.

So, Erin convinces herself that she wants to kiss Pete as a friend.

Totally normal. Totally nothing to be guilty for (even though Erin doesn't want to kiss Andy at all anymore).

There are a few times Erin just about reaches her breaking point. When Pete is being a totally adorable nerd about Die Hard and Erin can't stop grinning. Then he has his arm around her, and Erin has to remind herself she's still Andy's girlfriend. But Pete's so warm and his arm is such a nice weight over her shoulders, she tells him to leave it.

Then, one time, there's lice in the office. Erin's basically a master of lice, so she takes control and tells everyone to mayonnaise and buddy up. She claims Pete, of course.

The mayo is gross but kind of fun. She does him first, leading him to the annex and forcing him to his seat. She's laughing as she styles his hair into a dramatic Elvis-y look. When it's her turn Pete is ridiculously gentle, combing through her hair with soft fingers and mushy mayo. Pete swipes away excess mayo from her forehead and her ears, grinning when Erin admits she fell asleep for a second there.

Everyone goes back to work but Erin doesn't leave the annex, laughing at Pete's gorilla impression, and using the mayo as fancy styling gel.

Erin's stomach is sore from laughing by the time they go to the kitchen to rinse.

Pete takes off his shirt and Erin's stomach jumps into her throat. He's smiling so much as she rinses his hair out, and Erin can't stop watching his broad, smooth shoulders or the shape of his chest under his white shirt.

It's not much better when Pete rinses her hair. He leans over her head, watching his hands and making she her long red hair doesn't drop into the drain. She can feel his body heat and squeezes her eyes shut. With his slow movements, she gets shivers down her spine.

Erin almost screams with sexual frustration, and has to avoid Pete for the rest of the day.

(And the next day too, after she has an uncomfortably intimate dream about Pete and wakes up with an ache between her legs she can't relieve).

Andy comes back. It's been a long time. Erin has had a pain in her chest for almost the same amount of time. And she breaks up with him. She wants Pete. She needs Pete.

It's confusing. Andy talks around her and over her and twists her words until she's doing the exact opposite of what she came into his office to do.

Her head swirls, her chest hurts (and that ache between her legs is still unsubsided) as she leaves the office, finding Pete in the parking lot downstairs.

Petes words don't wrap around and befuddle her brain, they simply sweep through her chest, clearing that awful pain.

This is how I'm meant to feel, Erin realizes. This is how I'm meant to be treated.

With a burst of butterflies from her stomach, she connects her lips with Petes. She feels the warmth there, feels how he didn't recoil for second, and feels how he presses back into her, steady and sure. She feels home.

Then she's back in Andy's office again with the good kind of fire in her chest and she breaks it off and makes him realize what he just lost out on.

\-----

Erin's at Petes place that night, and she's had enough of not being able to touch.

She starts it, of course, hungry for him. Lips moving down his jaw, hands all over his hard arms, chest, and...other places.

When she starts unbuttoning his trousers he pulls away, panting. Tells her they don't have to do this right now. Tells her that they should wait.

Erin tells him firmly she's been waiting for him for months, and that she'd rather not wait a minute longer.

His face darkens and he takes control, crawling on top of her and kissing her everywhere. Her throat, her breasts, her thighs. In between her thighs is where he touches the most, though, as she has her fingers threaded in his hair.

Erin never knew touch could feel this good.

When he makes her come, she asks him, flabbergasted, what he just did to her.

He explains to her what an orgasm is and gives her three more to make up for the men that came before him (and her) in the past.

And at the end, when Erin is used to a cold, restless sleep, Pete pulls her into him, enveloping her into his arms, tucking his chin above her hair.

Erin signs contentedly when she realizes she'll never be without touch again.


End file.
